Cough
by Lang Noi
Summary: Lief gets sick shortly after the Maze of the Beast, and it looks deadly. Jasmine and Barda seek out help in the tiny village of Berk, and while they get it, they might have found much more...
1. Getting Sick

**Cough**

**A/N:** I was originally going to write about something happening to Barda, but then I changed my mind. Lief was a better target, and besides, Jasmine and Lief are too small to move Barda for very long.

Here's your archetypical "Sick Episode" fic, so have fun.

* * *

It all started with a cough.

When Lief started to have trouble keeping up with Jasmine and Barda, they first thought that it was a side effect of all the time they spent on the road. Unlike Barda, who had trained all his life as a palace guard, the boy wasn't built for endurance matches like the road had turned out to be. Unlike Jasmine, he was not used to living life on the raw edge of survival. Over the months they spent traveling together, it became less of an issue as they all adapted.

Except the longer the innocuous cough went on after the trio's adventures in the Maze, the more apparent it became that, somehow, Lief was getting sick. His breathing became ragged. He coughed often, and for minutes at a time. Jasmine could hear a quiet crackling sound in the boy's chest, as could Barda when he managed to convince Lief to let him listen. And that had scared all of them.

One night, as Filli and Kree settled into a nearby tree to keep watch over the group, Lief had a coughing fit that lasted until Barda thumped him on the back and he spat a gob of yellowish gunk into the fire. He went to sleep without even touching his trail rations, curled against Jasmine's side and still coughing every so often.

"Lief is very ill." Jasmine said quietly, mopping the sweat from his brow. The fever had come without warning, and now Lief shivered despite being wrapped in Jasmine's blanket and his own. "We should have noticed before this."

Barda agreed. "We need to find a healer or a medicine man, and quickly." He glanced up at the sky, where an ugly storm cloud was threatening to cover the moon and the north star. They had to get out of the weather before they were all washed away by the rising water. The River Tor was unforgiving at the best of times, and he had no desire to confront its famous flesh-eating worms on dry land.

"The trees say there is a village not too far from here." Jasmine said after a moment, green eyes dark with concern.

"In that case, we should start off now." Barda said, and stood. He picked Lief up almost effortlessly as Jasmine gathered their meager packs. Lief merely gave a racking cough and leaned against Barda's shoulder, not waking up even once.

Jasmine looked back, and Barda was sure he saw her grimace. Then she started walking in the direction her friends were telling her was the way to salvation. Kree flew ahead, crowing impatiently and urging them to hurry.

* * *

It all started with a cry.

"Grammy? Grammy, there's people on the road!"

Liam was out and about no matter the weather—with the latest of a dozen storms upon them already, he would have been the only one in the area to see anyone at all for weeks. But his eyes were sharp in youth, unlike his grandmother's, and she trusted him. So, despite the cold outside, Keyah snatched a shawl from the hook, stood up from her easy chair, and walked out to see what all the fuss was about.

There were, indeed, people on the road. Keyah squinted, one hand on her grandson's shoulder. In fact, it looked like two people…no, three. Two, with the larger one carrying a third. "Liam, go inside."

"But Grammy, I wanna see!" Liam said in a whine, but Keyah shooed him inside.

Keyah waited on the doorstep until the group came fully into view.

From the little group, there came a man's voice. "Who goes there?"

"Grammy and me!" Liam squealed from the window, having apparently found a way around his grandmother's orders. "Who're you?"

There was a muted fight among them that Keyah pretended to ignore. Finally, the girl said, "We are travelers. Our friend is sick, and we were told there was a healer here."

Keyah nodded. "Then we should get your friend inside. Come along." Grasping a limp arm and hauling the trio over the threshold, Keyah turned and shouted to Liam, "Get the water boiling, now!"

"The pot's already on the fire, Grammy! We're ready!"

* * *

An hour later, all three of the companions were dressed in dry clothes. Lief was asleep still, lying on a mat on the floor. The owner of the house—a woman of about fifty years—had placed a pitcher full of cold water next to him, along with a cloth Jasmine could soak and put on the boy's head. Jasmine and Barda were close by, sitting next to a low table within reach of Lief if he woke or if something happened. The woman's grandson had given them both cups of hot tea before wandering off to his own bed, while she hovered over Lief like a hawk.

"When did this coughing start?" the old woman—Keyah—asked.

Jasmine answered. "Three days ago. The fever started only a few hours ago."

Keyah frowned. She bent to listen to Lief's breathing again. "Has your friend been around people with the plague?"

"No." Barda said, matching the woman's frown with his own. "We have been traveling through the forests around the River Tor, not prowling the villages."

Keyah made a faint noise of acknowledgement before going to the fire again, where some strange mixture of water and herbs was boiling in a huge black kettle. "Has he been drinking the water? Not of the Tor, obviously, else he would be dead, but of any of the wells near it?"

Barda shook his head wearily. "We are careful enough to avoid the water soured by that accursed river. There are enough bodies floating in it to scare off anyone with sense."

The woman laughed, but only briefly. "A wise decision." She looked over the kettle again. "What about falling in? No one with sense drinks the water, as you said, but breathing it in while trying not to drown? Much more likely."

Barda was about to tell the woman that Lief had managed to avoid almost drowning, but he stopped. Jasmine froze, Filli and Kree falling silent as well. The truth was that none of them had gotten out of the Maze totally unscathed. Though they had evaded the Glus and Nak, Finn, and Milne were all dead, all of them had almost met their ends in that water spout chamber below the beach. It had been everything they could do to avoid being crushed against the rocks or swallowed by the sea.

Apparently, their escape had more consequences than they had thought.

"We almost drowned on the coast." Jasmine said bluntly, after a moment. "Barda kept me afloat, but Lief came close to death." It was true, from a certain point of view.

Keyah looked at them both until they both grew uncomfortable and sighed. "In that case, keep an eye on him. I am going to make sure my grandson is actually asleep. Then I will be back with bedding for you both."

"Thank you, Keyah." Barda said.

Keyah smiled, her eyes crinkling up at the corners. "You came to the right place. I will do my best for your friend."

* * *

Jasmine and Barda woke the next morning to the sounds of Keyah's grandson running around. The world outside was still dark and wind-driven rain still lashed the windows, but it was lighter than it had been. At the larger table, Keyah and her grandson were arguing over the first meal of the day.

"Grammy, I want eggs!"

"Liam, we have to be aware of what our guests need to get better." Keyah scolded. "This is a healer's home, first and foremost."

"But _Grammy_…" Barda could hear the pout in the boy's voice. "I don't want to eat vega—veger…greens!"

Keyah sighed. "Grandchildren!" Keyah looked over at the companions and said, "What you like for breakfast, then?"

"Anything you have would be fine, I am sure." Barda said, already carefully folding the borrowed blanket.

Jasmine left her bedroll where it was and went to check on Lief. Her keen ears still picked up a crackling sound from his chest, but it seemed less loud than it had been. When she put her hand on his forehead to check if the fever was still there, he stirred.

"Jasmine?" Lief asked, in a voice that was more a rasp than anything. He blinked up at her, eyes slightly unfocused.

"Lief!" Jasmine helped him sit up, glad that he was back in the world of the living.

Lief shook his head to clear it, blinking rapidly. "Where …?" And he stopped, overcome by a coughing fit.

It seemed like Keyah appeared out of nowhere, holding a cup of what smelled like herbal tea with honey in it. "Make him drink this once he stops." She passed the cup to Jasmine and edged Lief closer to the fire. "Spit into the fire when it comes up."

Jasmine blinked.

"If he needs help, thump him once, right on his backbone and under the shoulder blades." Keyah said quickly. "He needs to get rid of whatever is causing the cough, first."

Jasmine nodded as Lief finally spat out whatever had been blocking his throat. "Lief, drink this. It will make it easier to speak."

Rubbing his throat, Lief took the cup without a word and drained the contents quickly, despite the heat. Keyah went back to the table, where Liam was still complaining about vegetables. Barda sat down next to Jasmine and Lief, clasping Lief's shoulder.

"Where are we?" Lief croaked, wincing a little. He put the cup on the low table. Both of his companions could see that he was leaning on it heavily.

"South of the Maze." Barda said quietly, still wary of the healer and her grandson. "You fell ill last night, so we brought you to the village healer."

"What village?" Lief asked, as Jasmine grasped his arm and kept him from falling over.

"I do not remember the name." Jasmine admitted. "We have not seen a sign of any kind since Tora."

"The town's name is Berk," Liam said loudly. "We didn't name it, though."

"That is because the word means 'stubborn as a mule and twice as irritable'." Keyah sighed. "In any case, I took a look at all of you last night." She gave a wry smirk. "You all need good, hearty food if you want to last much longer on the road. I can make sure you eat well, at least for a time."

"How long is Lief going to need to stay here?" Barda asked, standing.

"No more talking!" Liam shouted impatiently. "I'm hungry!"

"Liam!" Keyah was louder still, her voice harsh. "Be polite to our guests. You were raised better than that."

"No!"

Despite being old enough to have his own children, Barda still recognized the look Keyah gave Liam. It promised dish-washing duty and lye soap in the near future.

The silent battle of wills went on for a few seconds, until Lief started coughing again.

"Is there any meat?" Lief asked quietly as Jasmine and Barda hauled him to his feet.

Keyah nodded before sending a sidelong glare at her grandson. "But no eggs. Unlike the farmers who bring their goods to town, we do not raise chickens." Liam pouted. "We also have apples and bread in the storeroom. If I can have one of you helping, it should be ready in a few minutes."

Barda and Jasmine exchanged looks over Lief's head. Jasmine said, "I will help. Barda can watch over Lief."

"I am not a child that needs minding, Jasmine." Lief protested wearily as Barda guided Lief to a chair at the main table. He slumped against the wood, folding his arms as a pillow for his head almost by reflex.

"No, but you are ill." Jasmine pointed out. She appeared by Keyah's left elbow, peering down at the cutting board, where the woman's knife hand was chopping carrots so quickly that the blade itself was nothing more than a blur. "What can I do to help, Keyah?"

Keyah nodded at a door in the opposite wall. "Liam can show you where the apples are. If you can find any other fruit, you are welcome to help yourself."

"Thank you." Jasmine said, and disappeared with the little boy into the storeroom.

* * *

After they were finished eating and comfortably full, Keyah began to act as a medicine-woman again. She had Lief take his shirt off and listened carefully to his breathing. Then she ordered Barda and Jasmine to make sure he drank as much water as he needed. She even took out a small notebook, muttering to herself as she tried to puzzle something out. Lief fell asleep, head on Jasmine's lap, sometime in the middle of it all, but Keyah seemed not to care.

As Liam finally reappeared from his room and started bothering Barda, Keyah finally snapped her book shut and said, very calmly, "Unless we can find Queen Bee Honey, he will not be able to travel for two weeks, if he survives at all. And even then, it will still take time to recover from this illness."

Instantly, Jasmine had Dain's jar of Queen Bee Honey in hand. Barda had to hide a smile—for a moment, he had feared that the cure would have been at the bottom of a dungeon or halfway across Deltora. It was so much simpler this way.

Keyah gaped at her, then realized what she was doing and schooled her features back into a more reasonable expression. She chuckled helplessly. "Resistance fighters, are you? Just as well. When he wakes, I will have another dose of thyme tea ready. Give him the honey in the tea and he should be on the road to recovery."

With that, she pulled Liam away from Barda's beard and went off to start the household chores.

* * *

"We call it the crackle cough." Keyah explained as she drew water from the well, bucketful by bucketful. Jasmine nodded to show that she had heard and understood. "It spreads quickly when people are already ill or tired, so we have to be careful not to drive ourselves into the ground trying to help him. It also means that we have to wash, and often." She glanced back at the house. "I think I will burn those blankets once Lief is well again, just to be safe."

"Do you think he will be well soon?" Jasmine asked, helping the older woman carry bucket after bucket of water to the barrel outside the front door of the house.

"He has a much better chance than most." Keyah said. "He is young, but strong, and we have all the medicine we need to help him." They finished their task in peace, without being bothered by Liam or alarmed by Barda in the event that something went wrong with Lief.

When they were finished, Keyah stretched and cracked her back slowly. "You can go inside now. But I may need Barda for a moment for chopping firewood. Would you send him out?"

"Yes."

Jasmine's conversation with Barda was brief, but he was glad of the chance to leave the house and do some honest work. Jasmine sat next to Lief, who was beginning to wake up. He coughed once or twice before opening his eyes.

"Jasmine?" he murmured, pushing himself up on his elbows before Jasmine stopped him, gripping his shoulders.

"Lief, you have to rest." Jasmine said shortly. She bit her lip, trying to think of how to be gentler about it. "Keyah said you were lucky to be alive."

Lief looked like he was going to say something, but he stopped himself. "I see."

"She thinks we are from the Resistance." Jasmine said after a moment, putting a damp cloth on Lief's forehead again. "She even asked for Queen Bee Honey by name."

"How did she know they use it?" Lief rasped, grimacing and rubbing his throat.

"She must be one of them. But she has not tried to drive us out or capture us, as Doom would." Jasmine frowned even as she said it. Some cages did not need bars. With Lief as ill as he was, they could not afford to leave and risk his death on the road. Whether she was a servant of the Enemy or of Doom's Resistance, the outcome would be the same.

Lief coughed, drawing Jasmine back to the present. He was still pale, and when she held his hand it was cold. "Maybe she works as Tom does."

Jasmine remembered the Plains shopkeeper and his mysterious ways and frowned. Tom would serve Grey Guards and Resistance members within minutes of each other without so much as blinking. Still, Lief had a point. It was likely that Tom was not the only opportunist out there. "Perhaps."

"Grammy said you need tea." Both Jasmine and Lief looked toward the table, where Liam was pointing toward a steaming cup of herbal tea. The black-haired boy scowled fiercely. "Grammy said and your papa agreed, so drink it!"

"Jasmine, what is he talking about?" Lief asked cautiously as the girl rose, picked up the cup and sniffed it. It smelled bitter.

It struck her as strangely funny that she and Lief were being ordered around by a boy less than half their age, wielding the authority of the only adults in the area. Still, after stirring a spoonful of Queen Bee Honey into the cup, she did as she was asked and handed it to Lief. "It is medicine."

Lief drank the tea, but not without a grimace at the taste.

"Grammy says willow-bark tea is good for fevers." Liam said seriously as he took the cup from Lief and put it on his grandmother's cutting board. "Thyme is good for coughing. Honey just makes sure you'll drink it without spitting it out."

"You must be a healer's son." Lief remarked, lying down again.

Liam looked at him, puzzled. "Mama was, I think." He frowned. "Grammy said Mama was a na…a nu…she was really good. But then the pirates came and Grammy took me home."

"Pirates?" Lief asked. As far as he knew, Berk was far away from the Tor. Or perhaps just far enough that pirates would look for other targets.

"They ride ships." Liam said, walking back over to the pair of teenagers. "Grammy said they attack villages close to the river and steal everything."

"Indeed," said Jasmine darkly, and Lief still remembered the night raid on the _River Queen_ vividly enough for both of them.

"They took Mama and Papa." Liam explained, his voice very matter-of-fact, as though he had been told the story many times. "I was just a little baby then, so I don't remember anything, but Grammy saved me and made sure they could never hurt anyone again."

Lief had several ideas about what that last sentence could mean, but none of the possibilities were good. It seemed that Keyah was much more dangerous than they had thought.

Keyah and Barda walked in a moment after, carrying armloads of wood from the sheltered wood shed outside. Keyah dropped her pile next to the hearth after asking Barda to take his load to the storeroom, then stooped to open a jar next to the fireplace poker. She pulled three tiny orange beads from it, and, setting them carefully at the base of the beginnings of a hearth fire, smashed them flat with a trowel. They burst into flame.

"Fire beads!" Jasmine breathed, shocked.

"Very useful." Keyah remarked, placing one of the logs on top of it. "I have no interest in trying to spark a fire the old-fashioned way after working all day." She yawned. "Liam, the water is drawn and the fire is starting. Wash up for supper."

"No!" Liam screeched. Keyah gave him another one of those distinct looks, and this one promised more lye soap than the previous one had.

"Did I sleep through the entire morning?" Lief asked Jasmine quietly.

"Yes, and now you need to eat."

"We have potatoes." Keyah said from the next room. There was a splashing sound. "You only had to wash your face and hands, Liam, not—oh, never mind."

* * *

As night settled over the little household, Liam curled up with his head on his grandmother's lap and yawned widely. Lief, Barda, and Jasmine sat to one side of the hearth, with Lief half-asleep and leaning on Barda. Keyah was stitching an embroidery pattern into a handkerchief, squinting when the firelight faltered. Kree was perched on the cloak stand and Filli nestled into Jasmine's hair. All of them had bathed and were content, though everyone but Liam still fussed over Lief, who still coughed often.

"Tell a story, Grammy." Liam murmured, obviously tired but unwilling to admit it.

Keyah ruffled her grandson's hair fondly. "You would fall asleep in the middle."

"I wouldn't!" the boy insisted, but he had to yawn again. Embarrassed, he mumbled, "Please?"

"I see." Keyah said.

"Can it be the one about the pirates?" Liam begged.

Keyah smiled. "You know the ending to that one by heart."

"But it's good!"

The woman sighed, considering but not very seriously, then turned to Barda. "Liam, it would be polite to let our guests choose tonight."

Liam pouted, glaring at them all. "They don't know which stories are good. They don't even know which ones you know!"

"Liam." Keyah said, and the boy subsided. Focusing again on the three companions, she said, "Do any of you know of Tenna Birdsong?"

There were three identical blank looks.

Keyah sighed. "The Tenna Birdsong tales are a series of stories, told exactly the same among the Jalis for centuries. They say that Tenna of the Jalis tribe rescued a blackbird from a net, and in return it told her the history of Deltora."

Jasmine straightened and Kree flew down to land on her shoulder. "From a blackbird like Kree?"

"Yes. I imagine that Tenna was much like you, though perhaps older." Keyah shrugged. "My husband used to tell these tales to my daughter when she was small. I learned the history of the land from him."

"Did your husband die?" Lief asked sleepily, blinking at her without really seeing.

Keyah nodded, frowning but not too upset by the question. "He died nearly seventeen years ago, fighting alongside his people when the Grey Guards finally marched on Jaliad. As far as anyone knows, no one in that city survived. The Guards killed every living thing and set fire to the rest."

For a while, none of the companions said anything.

Liam finally broke the silence with, "I never liked that story."

"Neither do I." Keyah shook her head as though to rid herself of the resurfaced grief. "If the ancient history of our land does not interest you, I also remember tales from the time of Adin. They, too, are told in a particular order, but they are much easier to understand."

"What can you tell us about the Jalis?" Lief suggested after a moment.

"Do you care for the tales in the time of Adin, or those around the fall of King Endon seventeen years ago?"

"If you can, I would like to hear about Adin." Lief said.

"Very well. It is a good tale." Keyah said, and cleared her throat. "In ancient days, the seven tribes were not united as they are today. To cross a border was to risk death, even in the dark days before the Shadow Lord invaded. This was especially true of the Jalis, who were the strongest warriors of the Land of Dragons, as Deltora was called before. So when the blacksmith Adin of Del set out on his journey to complete the Belt of Deltora and he traveled first to the territory of the Jalis, people would have thought him mad. His trouble began when he met a Jalis knight…"

Over the next hour, Keyah told two stories. In the first, she described how Adin gained the trust of the Jalis and added their great diamond to the Belt of Deltora. And in the next, she told of how the Torans cast him from their territory and he sought out the Dread Gnomes instead. By the time she finished speaking, ending the tale as Adin rescued and befriended Az-Zure by killing a Vraal, Liam was asleep but the companions were not. Their heads were buzzing with too many thoughts to allow it.

Then Keyah gave them some type of herbal tea and they, too, were drifting off.

* * *

Lief was still sick the next day, and the one after, but he was slowly starting to lose his cough and fever as the days went on. Life went on around him, but he was left mostly to his thoughts.

The nights brought yet more tales of Adin's journey throughout the land, and more things for Lief to puzzle over.

But the peace could not last forever, and it did not.

* * *

**A/N:** Meet Keyah, Mere/Toran crazy woman, and Liam, her grandson.

Have fun.


	2. Getting Well

**A/N:** Part Two. Drama!

* * *

On the ninth day, Lief was well enough to walk and work alongside Barda for a few minutes, though Keyah forced him to take breaks often. He still coughed and Jasmine said that his lungs did not sound much better than they had before, but he was so eager to be free of the confines of the house that he ignored her where he could. He noticed that Liam was beginning to follow him around, but he thought little of it.

On the tenth day, Lief was tired and sore, but not helpless and still in no mood to be trapped in the house. He sat on the front step rather than choosing to venture out into the rain. Liam splashed in puddles all around the clearing, covering himself from head to toe in muddy water. Then he climbed up on the woodpile, shouting for Lief to come and play with him.

Then he stopped. He jumped down, stumbling a little, and ran straight toward Lief with panic in his eyes. He hit the older boy hard enough to knock the breath out of him and clung there, small arms clamped around Lief's ribs like a vice. Lief coughed hard, jarred by the impact, and had not managed to recover by the time the danger had arrived.

"Liam, come inside now!" Keyah barked, and the next thing Lief knew, he was sitting at the kitchen table, holding Liam in his lap. The boy seemed less than interested in releasing him. Lief had only had the time to glance at the figures that had scared him so.

Four Grey Guards were marching down the road, and they had already spotted them.

Keyah chose that moment to stick her head out the front window, wooden beads dangling from her hair. Then she ducked back inside and ordered Barda to pretend to be something he was not and Jasmine to be a frustrated younger daughter. Lief was too busy trying to keep from choking to say anything or even listen to Keyah's improvised scheme.

Jasmine ushered Kree and Filli out the kitchen window, which was on the opposite side of the house from the road. Looking at her, Lief saw that her hair was thoroughly braided and had the same beads as Keyah's, and Jasmine was even wearing an apron over her borrowed clothes. Barda also had several hair ornaments, all of them looking like brass, but he seemed to have fallen back into the old beggar role he used to play. Feeling a tug on the side of his head, he saw that Liam was deliberately tying a silver bead into Lief's hair. Liam had different knots that were all small braids, none of which were tied by much more than a tiny strip of leather.

"What are you planning, Keyah?" Barda asked in an undertone.

Keyah grinned back, and that smile was one of wild abandon and mischief. "If they search here, they will see only a strange Mere family. They will not see the three."

Lief started in shock. All along, the strange old healer had known exactly who they were!

"You do not need to act as a trained performer." Keyah explained quickly. "Only choose false names and refer to each other differently. As close as you are, acting as a family will be easy enough, I hope." She smiled again. "I do not recognize this pod, which means that they have never come this way before. Our deception should be complete."

Jasmine's eyes were dark with suspicion, but there was too little time to argue. Lief had to admit, everyone in the household had dark hair to varying degrees, and that was close enough by a Guard's reckoning to count as kin.

"We may need to fight." Barda said.

Keyah nodded, saying, "Your weapons should remain in easy reach, and do not let go of them. The Guards have weapons made for chasing and killing over long distances. If they try to fight all at once in such a small space, they will lose many to their own attacks."

"That has never stopped them before." Jasmine snapped.

"Then we will stop them here and now." Keyah replied.

All of them had their gazes locked on the door. It was not a surprise when the knock came, but they all flinched despite that.

Keyah was the one who answered it, as agreed.

To no one's surprise, the Guards had stopped to harass the villagers. They seemed to want to start with the old woman who lived on the edge of town, and if they were after Lief, Barda, and Jasmine, they had been lucky. Or perhaps the companions had been terribly unlucky.

The Grey Guards, predictably enough, forced their way into the house and demanded food and drink. Liam hugged Lief more tightly, staring at the four identical soldiers with wide eyes. Jasmine stood near them, and Lief could tell that she was clutching her dagger in her sleeve and barely keeping herself from driving it into Carn 1's back. Barda kept silent, staring at them with an expression hidden behind a façade of weary drunkenness. Keyah cowered convincingly, but the cruel glint in her eye told otherwise.

They had been forced to entertain the Guards for over an hour before something changed.

"More ale!" howled Carn 7, who had already downed three mugs. Keyah bobbed a curtsy apparently out of sheer habit and disappeared into the cellar.

"Lazy old hag," grumbled Carn 8 before messily devouring what might have been mutton. "We wouldn't be here if not for chasing the three! We would have not been caught in the storm!"

"The Master gave us an order." Carn 1 said. "We should be able to find three maggots, even without the Ols sniffing about."

Lief listened with a growing sense of both amusement and dread. The Belt was still hidden under his clothes, and it seemed that with their new clothes and roles, the Guards could not recognize them. But that could only last so long.

"Where is that hag?" demanded Carn 6, who had been pounding his mug on the table for several minutes and giving Lief a headache.

"She'll be back." Carn 7 snarled, looking murderous. "We have her entire family here, and she'll be quick if she doesn't want anything happening to them."

Liam whimpered into Lief's shirt.

Keyah reappeared at that moment, rolling a massive barrel of ale up the steps. "I am sorry for the delay. It is a very long—"

But the Guards were not listening. They hauled the barrel onto the straining table and began eagerly filling their mugs. Ignored, Keyah drifted back over to her guests and grandson and sat next to Barda. For a moment, Lief thought he saw something engraved on the side of the barrel, but the Guards did not seem to notice.

Lief stared. How were they supposed to be able to defeat four Grey Guards indoors? It would be a massacre. But for some reason, Keyah was still smiling as the Guards drank their fill of ale.

Then she said, very quietly, "Liam, throw them out."

"Y—yes, Grammy." Liam stammered. And then, as though plucked out of their chairs by invisible hands, the Grey Guards hurtled through the air and out the front door with a scream. They all bounced and Keyah slammed the door after them.

"What—?" Lief began, but Keyah merely gestured for them to come to the window. They did.

Outside, the Grey Guards were scrambling to their feet, cursing, and beginning to load their slings with the deadly blisters. The rain still lashed the ground and trees and there was no chance a fire would catch in such weather.

"Watch," said Keyah.

As the Guards were just about to throw through the windows, as Barda, Lief, and Jasmine started to duck, something changed. The Guards began gasping, clutching at their throats and contorting in place. Lief recognized the signs and froze, horrified. As the Guards' necks began to stretch and their arms twisted around their heads, he had to look away.

Keyah smiled unpleasantly. "Dreaming Water has its uses."

"So people really do turn into trees?" Liam asked, sounding more confused than afraid.

"When the signs are right, evil ones do." Keyah replied. She went back toward the kitchen and plugged the leaking barrel of ale. She began to roll it off the ancient table and the boards creaked ominously.

"How do you make Dreaming Water into ale?" Lief asked, still bewildered. "It only comes from one place!"

"I would not know." Keyah said. "But my mother once lived in the territory of the emerald. I can only assume that she found the Dreaming Spring and decided there were uses for it." The woman finally managed to get the barrel down to the cellar with Barda's help, and when she came up there were questions waiting for her.

"My mother was a madwoman, even for a Mere outcast." Keyah told them. "She saw the world differently. I suppose she thought that Dreaming Water would be even more useful for a wise-woman as she tried to be if it was used to make drink." She shrugged. "I have only tried it once, and my mother carved the warning from the spring itself on the barrel. It was fortunate that Grey Guards are too stupid to read warnings."

"So it was." Barda said.

"But if one group of Guards disappears," Jasmine pointed out bluntly, "they will send others to find out why."

"I already expect Ols," said Keyah as she began to clean the kitchen after its attack by Guards. "And I have my own ways of dealing with them."

"Does that mean we're using wooden spoons again, Grammy?" Liam asked, finally letting go of Lief's ribcage. Lief wheezed.

"Yes."

"Oh."

"How did you throw the Guards outside?" Lief asked. "Sorcery?"

"Yes." Keyah said evenly, carefully scrubbing the table so the ale did not have a chance to dry on it. "It so happens that my grandson is a very young sorcerer."

The companions stared at Liam, who was still sitting in Lief's lap. He stared back.

"I can make things fly," the boy explained patiently. "It doesn't matter if it's pebbles or people, if I can see what it is."

"He is very talented for his age." Lief said, as tactfully as he could. It was terrifying to think that a little boy, half his age and half his size, could toss Grey Guards around like discarded dolls. Neither he nor his grandmother seemed to think of it as an achievement, either.

"Magic can be very useful when there are no other weapons that can be used as well." Keyah remarked. "Liam has killed Ols before using his powers, though I would rather that he did not. We have been able to avoid being attacked for over a year now and I enjoyed it while it lasted."

Barda looked concerned. "And if your magic fails?"

"Then you run." Keyah's voice was grim. "Liam and I will not be able to keep up."

"It will not come to that." Lief insisted.

* * *

For the rest of the day, Keyah cleaned the house. Liam helped where he could, but he also clung to Lief like a limpet whenever his grandmother was busy tending to something else. Jasmine and Barda discussed what options they had for when the Ols finally arrived, but there were not many choices. They had fought Ols before, and none of those battles had turned out well.

"We will likely be seeing only two pairs of Grade One Ols, at most." Keyah said later. "Berk is a quiet village, despite the name. Most would not see the point on spying on us. In time, however, there will be more Ols than anyone could hope to fight."

Because of the nature of Ols, it became clear that they could not hope to prepare a physical defense that would hold them off for long. Even a stupid Grade One Ol would simply change into a mouse or another creature to slip through a fence. So their only goal became to lure the Ols to one side of the house, and then use Liam's magic to kill them all at once.

The next morning, a man and his horse appeared on the road. Keyah did not recognize him or his beast, and Liam pointed out the small black mark on the man's nose and on the horse's flank. Liam ran out to greet them.

When Liam patted the horse's flank, he announced that the animal was obviously ill. The man looked confused for a moment, apparently not realizing that the horse was not eating from the pail of oats Keyah had set nearby for visitors' horses or that the it was as cold as ice.

And that was when Lief saw how dangerous of a sorcerer the little boy could be. Knives sailed from the table, followed by spoons and the fireplace poker. The items all sailed out of the house in a storm of ironwork, and every last one of them found a place to strike the rider and mount pair.

Both dissolved into ghastly white specters that withered and died when silverware stabbed them.

"That was horrible." Lief said after Liam walked back into the house and chose to play with Filli and Kree.

"So it was." Keyah said. "But this is how we live in a world where everything is out to kill us."

* * *

Ols came the next day, and the one after. Lief was growing stronger in the meantime, but Liam killed them before anyone in the house needed to fight.

By the time the final attack began, they were almost ready to fight back.

* * *

The storms had stopped by the time the assault began. The ground was wet and cold, but the air was clear. The Ols were prowling just outside of sight, wary of the house after seeing their fellows scythed down like wheat.

The front door opened and the Ols tensed. But this time the one that came outside was not the strange, dangerous child. It was a young woman with black hair tied in beaded braids, wearing a set of trousers with her tunic and heavy traveling boots. A blackbird flew down from the roof to land on her arm and she began to speak to it.

The Ols shivered. This was the wild girl they had been searching for! She was one of the three their master so dearly wished dead, and if she was there the other two could not be far away. Every Ol knew the story, and every one of them wanted to be the one to strangle the life out of their master's most hated enemies.

They charged. The girl ran.

Ols that had taken the shape of birds resumed their natural form, long fingers reaching for their target. Others streamed into the house, searching for more prey. Some entered through the chimney, hoping to catch their enemies by surprise. But they were disappointed.

There was no one inside.

Hiding near the woodshed, Barda heard the shrieks of outrage and smiled. Then he joined the chase, catching up to and running beside Jasmine as she passed. The Ols, thankfully, were too angry to think to transform into a faster form.

They only had to run for a short time, after all. The clearing they had agreed upon was less than fifty feet away.

* * *

"All of the Ols need to be close together." Keyah explained, drawing in the dirt with the end of her walking stick. Liam sat nearby with Filli on his shoulder, watching the other edge of the clearing anxiously. Lief sat back on his heels opposite Keyah, hand on the hilt of his sword, and memorized the strategy. It would be daring. It would be incredibly brave. It would probably also be suicide.

"My friends and I will still need to face more than thirty Ols." Lief pointed out. "No matter the trap you have planned, we may die before you can spring it."

"That is why I need Liam to stay back and herd them toward the center." Keyah said. "You only fight them for half a moment, at most."

Lief gave her a doubtful look.

"I would not risk your lives so soon after saving yours." Keyah said bluntly. "It would be a waste of my efforts to keep you alive."

It was not a comforting thought in the least. But they had no other plan, and Jasmine and Barda were approaching quickly. Lief stood and ran to meet them in the clearing, while Keyah ushered her grandson to his feet and told him to begin to pull in the net.

* * *

When the Jasmine and Barda arrived in the clearing, Lief was there waiting for them. The Ols piled into the area, long fingers seeking warm targets, and the first Grade Ones fell to the companions' blows after they were shoved forward by their fellows at the rear. It was a losing battle and all of them knew it, but it was also a delaying tactic.

The Grade Two Ols used their powers and Lief's hand blistered as his sword suddenly went red-hot in his hand. He was forced to drop it, as were Barda and Jasmine after only a moment's delay. But Jasmine grinned fiercely, seeing the late arrivals begin to panic.

The first Ols pressed in, too intent on their prey to see the danger behind them.

For behind the group and to the sides, the Ols were being corralled. Invisible hands squeezed them in together, pressing the outermost Ols into a crushing wall for those in the middle. The ones in front still took no heed until a magical barrier, green as glass, appeared between them and their prey. Lief, who had been worried that nothing would stop the Ols before the companions were all dead and cold, breathed a sigh of relief as the Ols pounded on the barrier to no avail.

Jasmine and Barda helped Lief away from the green cage confining the Ols and led him back to the area where Liam was waiting with Filli and burn cream.

"It's like a soap bubble." Liam said, pointing at the barrier that enclosed the Ols and kept them from escaping—the walls had risen until they had closed over the clearing, trapping everything inside. It shone green and blue in the sunlight. The Ols inside writhed, furious and shifting between forms rapidly, to no avail.

"So it does." Lief said, smearing the sticky burn cream on his fingers. "But what do you intend to do with so many trapped Ols?"

Liam blinked, looking surprised. "Me? It's not mine. Grammy said I'm not allowed to do big spells."

"Then whose?" Lief asked and stopped himself. If it was not Liam's work, he knew who was behind it. "Your grandmother is also a sorceress?"

"Hedge-witch," the boy corrected. "She doesn't like using magic much."

Lief decided to leave that thought alone for the moment, because Barda cursed suddenly. Looking back at the barrier, Lief saw that wicked spikes had formed on the inside of the bubble, all pointed at the Ols below. Slowly, ominously, the bubble began to shrink. The spikes did not, and the Ols shrieked in rage and terror.

Then, with a snapping noise, the bubble closed in like a fist. The Ols screamed, but it was already over. All that was left of the Shadow Lord's servants, all thirty of them, was a massive white stain on the forest floor.

Keyah reappeared on the opposite edge of the clearing, looking faintly smug. The expression did not leave her face as she walked over to the companions, spinning her walking stick idly in her hands. "Come along, then. Let me see your wounds."

And Keyah fussed over them as though nothing at all had changed. But Lief knew what he had seen, and it terrified him. How easy it would be to turn such a trap against humans! It was no wonder that Thaegan had turned to evil, if it gave her still more power.

* * *

"You should be on your way soon enough." Keyah said the next day, after listening to Lief's persistent cough. Though the crackling sound had not faded entirely, Keyah pronounced him healthy enough to travel, provided that they took some of her herbal medicines and made sure he took them every day for a week.

"Will you throw us out as you did to the Grey Guards?" Barda asked dryly, pulling the beaded ornaments from his hair and beard. The disguise had been useful when the villagers had visited the next day to find out what had happened during the battle against the Ols, for they had assumed that Keyah had taken in a group of Rithmere-born wanderers rather than the most wanted three people in all of Deltora. But the time for the charade was over.

Keyah smiled and shook her head. "No, I will not. You will have food and supplies for the time it takes to reach the Toran border. From there, you will be on your own."

They thanked her and her grandson for helping them, and for the supplies and the map. They tried to pay her with what gold they had, but Keyah only smiled and told them to keep what they had. She was the village healer—people paid her in goods, not money, and what would she ever need the gold for if her food was provided already? Liam only wanted to know where they were going, but they could not tell him.

And so the companions set off, heading south toward the River Tor to finally find a way across, and that was when they ran into the second set of storms.

It was when they found Dain and rescued him from the pirates.

And it was when they finally found Tora, pristine and utterly empty. They saw the broken stone that make the center of the city, and knew that, once again, Tora had abandoned Deltora. Only this time, they had paid for it.

* * *

**A/N:** The End.

There is actually part of a sequel in the works-or an epilogue, I suppose-but this is as far as this stroy goes for now.

And in case anyone was wondering, Lief had _pneumonia_. Yeah. He should probably stop almost drowning for the foreseeable future. ;)


End file.
